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I just finished James Randi's Faith Healers, in which he recounts his work investigating evangelists who rake in hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars through deception and fraud. And as much as I respect and applaud him and his work, the book fell flat with me. It just got to the point where so many of them have the same tricks and end up spending their ill-gotten gains in the same ways that it drones on for quite a bit. And it didn't help that most chapters are dedicated to individuals. My favorite parts dealt with Don Henvick, one of Randi's pals that would trick evangelists into "healing him". He even ended up fooling the same evangelist multiple times under different disguises and getting "healed" of completely different ailments he never knew he had. But these parts where few, far between, and not enough to make other parts more tolerable. Also Randi is a douche. In the last chapter he insinuates custodial staff at churches and theaters where these televangelist performances occur are drug addicts simply because he never found illegal drugs among the legal prescriptions tossed out after shows (Audience goers who think they're being healed throw their medications away). For all the pushing for evidence and such he could've at least stopped himself and maybe asked why he hasn't ever even seen illegal drugs being thrown away at any of the shows he attended as a spectator. Lead Psychiatry fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Apr 4, 2014 |
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Apr 4, 2014 11:54
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Guy A. Person posted:Wait, so his theory is that the custodial staff is quickly snatching up all the illegal drugs for themselves, but not the expensive prescription drugs which they could turn around and sell for a profit (or, y'know, also just get high on as well) A lot of this took place in the 70s and 80s, so I can't comment on what the black market for prescription meds was then. But the medications they'd throw away are not the kind one gets high off of, like heart medication and insulin.
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Apr 4, 2014 20:06
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Going to revive this thread to ask if anyone knows any good reading on Acupuncture? I'm thinking I'd like to delve into bullshit healing subjects, now that it's a few months after the James Randi book Faith Healers I posted about on the previous page, and currently reading up on Chiropractic in a book titled Spin Doctors: The Chiropractic Industry Under Examination. I'm willing to take suggestions on other bullshit healing practices also or any book that can sum up a bunch of them so I'm at least more aware.
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Jun 7, 2014 07:46
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